Truthfully, they may do the warranty work, but I’ll bet you money, you will be last on their list for any work to be done and truthfully, I can’t blame them. I work in the building material industry and we deal with the same issue. Customer buys his $30k window package at HD then comes to me for warranty/service. I’ll gladly help him but “my” customers get priority. You get what you pay for, and sometimes that expedited service.
I used to buy into this and it does make sense. A skeptic now, for larger volume dealers. I think its more likely to ring true at a smaller dealer.
For context, this is what my current dealer (high volume) told me when we were shopping around for a tritoon back in 2016: ”our customers get service priority which matters with Michigans short summers.” That stood out to us. We looked at a tone of brands in person for months via various dealerships. Started leaning Bennington midway through, and our current dealer was very close to the cottage AND a Bennington/Mercury dealer. And this idea of getting some level of priority for service was a bonus in our mind.
First service repair was 2nd season due to poor rigging of our fuel water separator by the dealer. Just got dumped in line with everyone because it was July and they were too busy to really discern. I had a former student and his close friend working there, and they did some overtime to get mine through quicker. Had nothing to do with having bought from the dealership.
And this year we have the big electrical issue and meltdown as many know. Boat sat at the dealership untouched for 3 months. I kept checking weekly, and they were just overwhelmed by unprecedented demand and work orders. Get it. However, it started sounding a bit evasive sometimes when I did my check ins. When I finally spoke to the service manager personally in week 5 of it just sitting there he literally told me “We are pushing thru simple and quick jobs to please as many people as possible, and sidelining time consuming major work that only impacts a few customers. I unfortunately was in the later category.” On one level I get that. However, NOT ONLY was I not getting priority as a customer that bought directly from them, I wasn’t even getting to get a place in line. WT….heck!!!
My boat got side lined and side stepped for 12 weeks (Hello, better part of our boating season) because it was a big time consuming job. And now is still not repaired 6 months later because my dealerhips wait on getting to it eventually bumped into the supply chain parts shortage - no e.t.a. on fuse box and main electrical harness.
At least for me, that whole song and dance about “our customers will be priority”, has rung very hollow - particularly this year. I think the high volume huge dealers don’t keep track anymore than a car dealership service center does. You call, they schedule, you’re dumped in line.
Now a smaller dealership, I can totally see them doing it. They are small, more personal. They are likely more inclined to have the owner or manager more directly know the customers, and I can really see some level prioritization taking place.
